Cammy Kerr warns team-mates to beware of ‘horrible’ Balmoor

EUAN McARTHUR

Dundee kid Cammy Kerr last night warned his team-mates to steel themselves for their trip to “horrible” Balmoor.

The Dark Blues head north next to the fishing town of Peterhead for their third game in Group A buoyed by Saturday’s 6-2 demolition of Dumbarton at Dens Park.

But full-back Kerr, 20, knows from personal experience it can be less than perfect surroundings as they gear up to take on Jim McInally’s League 1 hopefuls tonight.

Dundonian Kerr spent two separate loan spells with the Blue Toon before breaking into Paul Hartley’s top team and the level-headed youngster knows it did him the world of good in toughening him up.

However, Kerr concedes Balmoor has the potential to throw anything at the opposition and has told the Premiership visitors to prepare for an uncomfortable evening.

Kerr said: “It’s a horrible place to go.

“I loved my time up there and I learned a lot from playing first-team football. It was great experience.

“But on days it can be awful, believe me. Between the travelling up and the weather which can be anything, it can be a nightmare.

“I remember some games it was shocking conditions. “Hopefully it’s not too bad this time but we’ll wait and see.

“The people up there are great and the team have been doing well. They are just behind us in the table.

“So it’s all set for a really tough game and we know we’ll have to be on our guard.”

Dundee surged into second-top spot in the group with their destruction of Dumbarton which proved they are taking this competition seriously despite their opening-day draw away to East Fife.

Local lad Kerr, who hasn’t looked back since winning the man-of-the-match award in his first Scottish Premiership appearance in a 2-1 win over city rivals Dundee United back on 2 January, insists he would love nothing more than to get his hands on the trophy.

Kerr said: “People talk about it as though it’s still pre-season.

“But for us it’s much more than that. Personally, I just want to do as well as I can.

“We’re going into every game trying to win it, which includes Peterhead and then Forfar on Saturday.

“Of course, you go into every competition to be successful. That has got to be the mindset.

“This is no different and we just want to get through to the next stages and then see where it takes us.”

Dundee took a while to find their stride at the weekend but Kerr knows when they hit top gear they can be hard to live with.

He said: “We got there in the end against Dumbarton.

“It really wasn’t like us.

“We weren’t great in the first half and we know ourselves it wasn’t good enough.

“But in the second half we showed how good we can be, especially up in the final third with Greg Stewart and Kane Hemmings.

“When they click, they can take some stopping.

“Hopefully we can get in front and stay there, but we know Peterhead will be very tough opponents.”

Meanwhile, Dens manager Hartley reckons their emphatic win at the weekend will stand his men in good stead for their Balmoor encounter.

Hartley said: “The Dumbarton win set us up nicely for Peterhead. I think it’s always difficult when the season is getting underway but the second-half performance on Saturday showed what we can do.

“The players know what they can produce on their day.

“We will be another two weeks before we are where we should be at this stage of the season and this will be another test.”

Dundee are still without midfield pair Paul McGowan and Nicky Low as well as long-term crock James McPake.